16A EHU problem
Hello,
We are on a site in Holland and have paid an upgrade for 16A.
However, we cannot operate anything other than the fridge and the TV together without tripping the electrics.
Put the hot plate or the toaster or the kettle on (with just the fridge running), it trips. Even the kettle or toaster alone (fridge off) tripped it.
The site says it is a problem with our caravan (which has just been serviced and did not have problems in the past few days on other sites).
On the plus side, we can reset it ourself with a passcode. On the minus side, it’s driving us bonkers. One of the reasons for choosing the site was its 16A option.
The site suggested we check each appliance to see what is tripping it.
If it was a problem with our caravan, would a trip switch not have been deployed or something? I know nothing about these things so I am ill-equipped to suggest to the site that the problem is at their end.
We have never tripped a 16A supply before.
All advice gratefully received. Thank you.
Comments
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Sounds more like a problem with their supply. You say it trips if you only add the hot plate to the load. Do you mean the integrated one on the cooker. If so they are only 800 watts, so even with the fridge and TV would not trip the standard 6 amp. Is there a standard socket you can plug into to see what happens with that.
Also if you have one, (we always take two abroad) try it with another EHU lead, in case there is an issue with that.
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It might not be that you are "overloading" the 16amp it could well be that one of your apliances has developed a fault ,try what the site staff advised one at a time (site trips seem much more sensitive than those fitted to your LV)
Ps toasters and hair dryers are what tend to thow up faults
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A daft question I suspect, but you are not running electric for heating set at 3kw? 16 amps gives around 3.7 kw and if I had my heating on using the 3kw setting then, with only the fridge and battery charger running using any of the items mentioned it would exceed 16 amps.
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We were once on a site in Holland that offered a range of ampage from 6 to 16. Normally on most campsites with 6 amp we were able to get away with running at the maximum but at the Dutch site it was all done an electrical control panel in reception and if you had 6 amp that was all you got! If you are running a normal domestic kettle its possible (that with the fridge and charger system also on) that you will trip the electrics even at 16 amps. Perhaps a bit more information on the power on the appliances you are using would be helpful. Perhaps also chat with reception to see if there is any leeway on control of the amps.
David
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Thank you so much everyone. It’s really helpful of you.
Our control panel was on 2kw (not 3kw) and we have changed it to 1kw to see if that makes a difference (although might it affect hot water supply?).
The system here is also a control panel in reception. They say it is set to 16kw.It is a normal kettle. No hairdryer. Have tried it with the toaster in the name of science too. Needless to say, it doesn’t like it.
Good idea re:the lead too. Don’t have a spare and it seems to be working okay in that the fridge still works on the supply.
Re:the hot plate, yes, I meant the one on the cooker. Sorry. With the panel at 1kw, we Seemingly can manage the fridge and the hot plate, so that’s a result for now! Thank you everyone. 😃👍🏻
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If your panel was on 2kw (and actually heating) water plus fridge TV and battery charger, then many toasters or certainly a normal kettle will take it over the 16amps and trip the supply. Rather surprised the electric hot plate did though. Perhaps a rather sensitive trip. Glad you sorted it by putting the panel to 1kw, it will just mean the water takes a bit longer to heat up. On that setting the toaster may also be OK but possibly not the kettle.
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Thank you. It definitely has more of a French 10A feel than a 16A. We are relative newbies (5 years in) but have never had any issues with a 16A supply. Feel like I could run a nightclub on a CAMC supply. 💃
Thank you for the advice. Was just grumpy at the thought of using gas when I’ve paid 20 Euros extra for the 16A supply. Must not be grumpy- the sun is shining!!
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We did the same as you with our caravan, although our kettle was 900watts, toaster 1.2 kw. The OP says a normal kettle though, so that could be anything between 2 and 3 kw.
Now with the MH we use heating on 2 on 16 or 10 amp sites and 1 on 6 amps and gas for kettle, toast etc.
I think in the OP's case they have been lucky in the past getting less sensitive trips. This time I suspect it is the other way round.
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The tripping of your 16A supply will depend on the tripping characteristics of the protection device provided by the site. On UK CCC and CMC club sites the the cheapest way for the site to provide a limited supply to us (you) is to use an MCB to limit the supply current. MCBs (like the ones in your consumer unit at home) are really there to protect the cable between the supply and its destination (your caravan or motorhome) but they can also be used to limit the current being used. This is quite a crude way of limiting the current to, say, 16 amps because the time to trip your supply will depend on the MCB characteristics eg a 16 amp Class B MCB will allow 16 amps to flow through it almost indefinitely. It will allow 32amps to pass though it for 6 seconds and 48 amps for 2 seconds before tripping. However, the site in Holland may not use an MCB at source to limit your supply. If they have an electronic control system, individual feeds to the guests units may be limited to 16amps maximum. The electronic system may also limit the inrush currents to your appliances (when you switch an appliance on it may take a lot more than its rated current for a few milli seconds - its called inrush current). The difference between your site supply in Holland is that they are selling you electricity. They will also want to protect their cables but they don’t want to give you any more current than you’ve paid for, even for a few milli seconds. Hope this makes sense.
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Depends what you call normal, my Bosch kettle at home is 3000 watts so at least another 4 and a bit amps? I was working on a worse case scenario as I wasn't in a position to second guess what the OP had as a kettle.
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Dave
Interesting point you make about "selling electricity" . The site where we have come across this form of distribution was near Eindhoven and it sells itself as a "Green Campsite" which might explain the system used. It was interesting how precise it was in tripping if you strayed a little over the quoted ampage. We ended up having to upgrade as things that worked on a 6 amp supply in France using standard connections kept tripping at 6 amps so we had to upgrade to 10 amp at an additional cost of course!!!
David
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Hi
A good explanation DN thanks
JK
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Wow Dave Nicholson, thank you. I feel I may need to absorb that with a stiff gin!
The kettle and fridge together trip the system (kettle says it’s 1850-2200W). This is with the control panel on 1Kw. Can use the electric plate and the fridge together with the panel on 1Kw. Daren’t try all three! The toaster is a caravan/camping toaster but it didn’t like that earlier.
I still have a hunch we are not really on 16A, no matter what their fancy system says. More like 10A. We should be able to run the kettle and fridge together shouldn’t we? Haven’t gone back to reception today. Will brave it tomorrow! Thank you all again.
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It would help if you could be precise about the equipment you are using. What (Kw) rating for your kettle, etc? A 16A supply should be adequate for normal use but only if your plug in equipment is low power. A domestic kettle rated at just over 2KW will usually pull about 9amps, but our camping kettle is rated at 800W thats 3.5A.
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Thank you Obber. As I said, the kettle is 1850-2200W so roughly 9A perhaps. A poster above said a caravan fridge should use less than 1A. Pretty sure the kettle isn’t 15+A!
I found a handy table in my research suggesting a hotplate should use 3.5 and a fridge 0.5. A small toaster 4.3 and a microwave 3.9. I’ve tried to upload the table for others but the file size seems to be too large.0 -
Personally I would never use a domestic kettle in a tourer. We have "caravan" one of about 750w . It just takes longer to heat up. I am surprised that you have not encountered the problem before, especially so if using it on the continent.
I had a similar situation to what you describe arise on a little tour and I was blaming the particular bollard we were on. This was a C&CC site. The site manager checked out the bollard and pronounced it good but the problem continued so I asked if I could try it in another bollard as there were some free and it did seem better on one. However when I got home and investigated, I found that the plug at the caravan end of the mains lead had deteriorated inside. A new plug solved the problem, but I realised that I had used that lead for quite a few years so I got a new one and kept the old as an emergency spare.
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Just to muddy the water a little more and I’ll not go into too much theory (we’re all on holiday after all). If you’re only getting the equivalent of what you believe is a “10amp” supply, it could be that the current specified (and limited) by your campsite is Peak Current rather that RMS (root mean squared) current that is the normal way of specifying AC supplies in Europe. RMS current is 0.637 x peak current which would equate to just over 10 amps RMS.
Its a bit nauty of the campsite if this is what they’re doing since RMS values are the quoted norm.
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Thank you again everyone. It is really appreciated. We started caravan life with a caravan kettle but it was on a forum like this that someone said that a domestic kettle should be fine on most pitches. Made the switch a few years back and haven’t had a problem. Good tip re:the plug. I’ll have a look, but it’s only 5yrs old. 🇳🇱 None of it is a major issue - I used to camp up mountains in a 1-man tent. It’s been a gradual graduation to a six-berth caravan with bunk beds. 🤦🏻♀️
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Sorry, I lost my phone for a few days. I went back (again) to the reception on day 4. Different lady there this time. She checked something on the computer (which her colleague hadn’t done) and glibly said that there was a fault with the supply to the pitch. It was a fault with their system and not the caravan and all should be working now. No apology (or refund?!) but I let it go for the sake of a holiday vibe. And indeed it worked from then on! Thanks again for your responses.
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Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it!
When you say control panel set to 1 or 2 Kw, do you mean that is what your water heater is set to?
If so, if you use a 2kw kettle at a time when the water is heating on even just 1 Kw, and possibly fridge working, and battery charger, you will be close to 16 amps, with nothing much left for other things.
A lower wattage kettle would be a better idea, especially in winter when you would need heating on too.
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